The Sharks played well for most of this game and could've won in regulation, but a late-minute collapse in the third period allowed the Carolina Hurricanes to tie it up and win in come-from-behind fashion 5-4 in overtime.
Another disappointing, tough pill to swallow, but I will try not to complain too much about this one. The Sharks struck first late in the first period by Oskar Lindblom redirecting a shot from Evgeny Svechnikov. Steven Lorentz came up with the secondary assist on that first goal as well. The Hurricanes evened things up a few minutes later on a goal from Calvin de Haan to make it 1-1 through one period of play.
The second period was scoreless, but the best play of that frame was Timo Meier laying a great hit on Jaccob Slavin after Slavin hit a different Sharks player. The offense picked back up early in the third period, as Sebastian Aho scored to give the Canes a 2-1 lead. The Sharks evened things up soon after on a backhanded, top-shelf goal by Nick Bonino, with the lone assist on the equalizer going to Mikey Eyssimont. Eyssimont followed that up with his first goal as a Shark from Nico Sturm and Mario Ferraro to regain the lead for Team Teal.
With about two minutes remaining in regulation, the Sharks sealed the deal on an empty-netter by Mario Ferraro from Mikey Eyssimont. Or so we thought. Seconds after the empty-netter, the Canes stormed back with a goal by Sebastian Aho to get within one, and Martin Necas scored with twelve seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at four and send it to bonus hockey. Carolina had all the momentum at this point, and they completed their comeback just under a minute into overtime on Martin Necas' second goal of the game to win 5-4. I also read an unbelievable stat regarding this game: this is now the second time the Sharks held a 4-2 lead in the third period having scored an empty-netter, only to lose 5-4 in OT. To make matters worse, these instances occurred within a three year span, with the first time happening during the 2019-20 season against the Washington Capitals, and the Sharks are the only team in NHL history to pull off this absolutely embarrassing statistic.
James Reimer started in net for his fifth start in the past six games, recording a total of 31 saves. In addition, Marc-Eduoard Vlasic was scratched due to being under the weather ahead of this game, and Jacob MacDonald made his Sharks debut after being acquired in the Matt Nieto & Ryan Merkley trade with the Avalanche on Wednesday.
Overall, this game was great until the very end. This is glorified tanking at its finest. I can't put this into any more words, other than this Sharks team is an embarrassing dumpster fire that besides Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier, and Erik Karlsson, needs to completely blow it up and clean house if they want to move any closer to becoming the perennial playoff contender they once were. Any amount of hope I had in this team this season has practically disappeared, but I continue to watch and follow them closely for a few reasons. Those reasons are that I am a true diehard fan, and they are in the thick of potentially winning the Connor Bedard sweepstakes this offseason, with the latter possibly changing the course of this franchise for the better if all goes right.
San Jose travels to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins for their last game before the NHL All-Star break tomorrow at 4 pm PT.
Sources: NBC Sports Bay Area/California, NHL App, Curtis Pashelka via Twitter
You can further support my blogs by checking out my merch (sample pictured below): CPF Store
No comments:
Post a Comment